Hi. I will be a high school junior after the summer and I just moved to the US last year. I’m really shy because my english isn’t the best and I don’t know anybody. Although my grades are amazing (top 5% of class '18), I have no extracurriculars; do ECs really matter? or do they just matter when you apply for top colleges? And what’s a typical “top” college like? my target college is university of va(29% acceptance), and my other second plan colleges mostly have 60% acceptance rates. Thanks for helping!
For each school you are interested in Google: “Common Data Set <>”
Section C7 will list:
“Relative Importance of Academic and Nonacademic Factors in First-time, First-year, Degree-seeking Admission Decisions”
If you live in Virginia and your dream school is UVA, look if your school has Naviance and if so look at what it took for past people from your school to get in. Some schools, like my own, have a very good relationship with UVA, meaning that 30+ get admitted each year and as long as you’re top 5% with a minimum score of 30/1400 you have a more than good chance of getting in. Couple a few ECs there with a leadership position or two and it’s set (of course assuming essays and LoRs aren’t awful).
If you don’t live in Virginia, even those with top test scores and GPAs get rejected, so you probably won’t even have to worry about the EC thing because you’d more than likely get rejected anyway (I know this is harsh, but seriously…UVA OOS is just as selective as some of the lower tier Ivies).
As you’re a rising junior, it is not too late to find ECs that you’re passionate about. If you like reading, join the book club! Like French? Join French Club and, if your school has it, French Honor Society! Join a sport or get a job or join art club or pick up an instrument. As long as you have a few things to show you aren’t spending your time doing absolutely nothing, you’ll be good! Bonus points if you enjoy them! 
(This is assuming you’re in-state. As far as my school is concerned, as long as you’re in a couple clubs and have all the aforementioned credentials, getting an acceptance/rejection is usually pretty easy to predict. Of course there are outliers, but you already mentioned you have safeties so that’s great!) Good luck and have a great junior year!
yes I live in virginia, out of state tuition is impossible. The biggest thing is how can I spend my time on ecs? I’m taking a lot of IB next year and I also have to work on my sat (which would take as much time as schoolwork). Do ecs have to be approved by the school? I used to play piano last year and guitar in 6th grade, but that was in my homecountry and i have no proof. By the way…does uva or most public private colleges with huge endowments offer a lot of financial aid? (uva: $7 billion). I just wanna prepare for everything in case my dad’s business crashes. Thank you for your help! @berkdork
The general rule is that most stuff before high school really doesn’t matter (unless it’s really incredible), so doing something in 6th grade, out of the country or not, won’t matter. I actually just finished my junior year, so I can speak from experience. It’s tough managing everything. Taking 5 APs, being a member of 5+ clubs, being a member of the track team, working ~12 hours a week, prepping for ACT/SAT…it’s a lot. I’d recommend finding clubs that meet in the mornings so after school you can work on school work/test prep/etc. That’s what I did and honestly all it requires is getting up a bit early that day of the week. The lack of sleep is an issue, but honestly I was so exhausted from everything junior year that I actually got /more/ sleep junior year just because of the exhaustion that hit in once 12 reached. Find a couple of clubs that meet in the morning that you like (this is important!), pursue them this year, and run for officer positions at the end of the year for senior year. You don’t need clubs for ECs though, playing the guitar on the side is a completely valid EC and would be totally okay to put on your app.
I know it’s daunting right now, I didn’t think I could do it all when junior year started, but I survived, so I have faith you can too! Keep the end goal in sight; junior year is the year that I noticed a lot of people fall in to one of two categories: they rise to the challenge and thrive or they start to slack and it can really be seen. Something might have to give, for me that was test prep, which is why I’m taking the ACT this fall when I wanted to be done with test prep before senior year, but I managed to finish the year with straight As, handled a job, ran track, and picked up some officer positions in things that inspired me in the meantime.
I recommend looking up the thread “‘Hidden’ Extracurriculars–What Are Yours?” to get a better idea of ECs that you could include outside of clubs. I hope this helped, even though it was purely anecdotal. I know it’s all a bit stressful (trust me, this time last year I was beyond stressed wondering how I was going to manage everything), but you can power through, I have faith! Pick up some ECs that will push you, but are manageable, work hard this year, and save yourself a lot of stress for app season!
In addition to trying to join an EC or starting to do something not at all connected to school that you could count as an EC, think about what you do now that could potentially be counted as an EC. How do you spend your time not dedicated to schoolwork or sleep? Do you work, take care of a younger sibling, write, cook, or do anything else that isn’t studying, reading (without thinking critically about it, discussing it with other people, or writing about it, etc, that is), watching TV, or looking at things on the internet? You might be able to count that as an EC.
EDIT: realized this is similar to what is discussed in the “‘Hidden’ Extracurriculars–What Are Yours?” thread (http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/986932-hidden-extracurriculars-what-are-yours-p1.html) mentioned in the comment above, but leaving it anyway as kind of a short summary for the thread.
@thatrunnerkid @berkdork I checked the “hidden extracurricular” thing and its not very serious…or is it? @thatrunnerkid really? my ecs can be anything outside school? Does it have to be approved by anyone? I heard people lie about ecs in their college application and they got away with it. I really dont wanna join any sort of clubs because my english clearly isnt the best and I’m too new to people around here.
EC = extra-curricular = outside of instruction, so technically its whatever you do outside of class and doing work directly related to class. I’d only list productive stuff though, not things like TV watching, etc., as I described in my last post.
I know, it feels strange not having to have the activity approved, but doing things outside of a given structure can give you a lot of freedom. Honestly, the coolest extra-curricular things I’ve done have been not approved by or connected with any larger organization, both in high school and in college. And yes, you can list non-approved things on your application.
Some people do lie, and not just about activities that aren’t connected to school, but also about school clubs. Yes, some of those people get away with it, but if their university ever finds out that they lied on their application, they can get expelled. Plus, I’d imagine that they’d feel guilty about it, and it would not be fun feeling like that. So overall, I’d say it is not worth it to lie on your application.
I know how it feels to not want to join any clubs you feel like your language competency isn’t high enough. It’s tough. I’ve been studying abroad in Germany for the past year, and for the longest time, I didn’t want to do anything with a club for that reason. One day though, I decided to try it out, and the people were really nice and accepting, even though my German isn’t all that great, especially in informal social settings. I think you might find the same where you are. I of course don’t want to force you if you really don’t want to, but I would recommend giving it a try if there is something you are interested in
If you are still concerned about ECs, you could also apply to a few schools where you get automatic admission (or even a scholarship!) with a certain GPA and ACT/SAT score, or the only admissions criteria are those factors. If you are interested, I could post here a few of those schools.
ECs absolutely matter, i would step up your game and do at least a few things
EC’s only matter at top colleges. Many colleges don’t consider them at all. You should check the common data sets of schools you are interested in to see how they consider them
ECs do not have to be in school and your school does not have to know about them, though if you are claiming something very impressive colleges may find it strange if it isn’t mentioned elsewhere.
@me29034 top colleges like what? are you talking harvard mit stanford etc. or basically colleges with 20-30% acceptance rates?
My kids did ECs outside of school. One collected insects and entered them in the county fair. She club fenced, too (sport not offered at school). The other went to a camp for an unusual language and spent a summer abroad there during high school. She was in scouts as well. I would think UVA would want to see at least a couple of activities. Most colleges want students on campus who are interested in something besides studying.